Mike and Jules Relaxed Outdoor Wedding in Cornwall with a Festival Vibe

Afternoon Lovely People. I hope you all had a fab weekend. Another Monday has come which means its time to share with you another awesome festival inspired wedding and today’s is a gooden! It’s captured by the amazing Debs Ivelja and held at Cornish Tipi Weddings, an incredible licensed outdoor wedding venue in Cornwall with a lake, woodland, glamping and wild camping. It is also a wedding that is full of some unique ideas such as a drawing of the venue that was used instead of a message book. Guests were encouraged to colour this in and it is now a gorgeous piece of art work that the couple have in their home.

Mike and Jules wanted their wedding to be a reflection of who they are as a couple and everything they love to do together such as exploring the outdoors, camping, chilling around a fire and attending festivals. As well as these things they also wanted their wedding to have lots of good food, booze and music and to be surrounded by all the people they love the most. They have been so inspired by planning their pwn wedding that they have actually started their own business from it. They offer a mobile bar called ‘The Paddock‘ that has been converted from a vintage Sinclair horse box which they will use predominantly for weddings but also parties and other events. Definitively check it out as it is such a cool idea for a bar!

With lots of bohemian and festival style decor inspiration, a colour palette of green, white and cream, mismatched bridesmaid dresses and picnic style catering – this is a wedding that we know you are all going to love.

Mike and Jules tell us all about their big day….

A Converted Railway Carriage, A Photo Film and One Knee….

I (the groom) always wanted to propose outside. Initially the idea was to be at one of our first camping spots but then we planned to take a trip back to Cornwall for Jules side of the family’s birthday where Jules and I spent an amazing Christmas day the previous year. The location was technically camping, essentially we were staying in a old converted railway carriage (which was amazing). However it did have a large outside area with a fire pit and access to electricity, so the plan hatched to build a makeshift screen from plastic downpipes and tarpaulin to project a film I made of various photos of our time together so far, with of course “The Boss” Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run playing in the background. Keeping Jules away with mother and sister in-law while I, my now father in-law and my brother in-law put the plan together and managed to time it so as she walked round the corner the music started and the video played. Lucky our dog Bruce didn’t decide to get involved as I got down on one knee, although I don’t think I had even got down fully before Jules said “yes” to my relief. From that day onwards it was non-stop wedding planning (which I have to admit, Jules nailed!)

Perfect Venue with Tipis and Wild Camping….

Our wedding was held atCornish Tipi Weddings. This was the only venue we went to see. The most beautiful, breathtaking venue, we knew our day couldn’t of been anywhere else after visiting. It has everything… trees, streams, a beautiful quarry, tipis, fire and the stars.

We knew we wanted an outdoor, relaxed festival vibe so we literally did just do a Google search for that. Cornwall was also our favoured location as we go camping there every year in our van with our dog and have lots of happy memories and wanted to make it into a bit of a holiday with all our favourite people. You could wild camp in tents for the night or a 2 night stay in a tipi. As we wanted the party to last the whole weekend, we thought this was perfect. Everyone could relax as everything was all in one location.

Bespoke Wedding Rings….

We actually made our wedding bands ourselves, under the watchful eye of a trained/skilled professional at ‘good as gold‘ in Weymouth. I cannot rate this enough, it was an amazing experience and so lovely to look at our bands knowing we made them for each other, from a plain piece of metal to our beautiful shiny rings. (See attached images of progress)

Mismatched Bridesmaid Dresses & Engraved Bracelets….

The bridesmaids all have very different styles and we wanted them to all feel happy, confident and comfortable and pick something they would wear again. So they were from a variety of places… Monsoon, Etsy, French Connection. All with dusky pink/grey tones. I bought all the girls simple bracelets from Lisa Angel to go with their dresses and had their names engraved in them.

Natural and Simple Decor….

I’m not going to lie, about a year and half worth of planning went into the day. Even though we wanted a relaxed, natural look, it’s surprising how much work has to go into that!!

We wanted natural and simple almost effortless. Hessian, hay bales, large dream catchers swaying in the trees (that were all made by us) bunting, hops, ivy, candles, hanging lanterns and fire. Most of the wedding party arrived on the Friday and it was great for breaking the ice for family and friends to meet and work together to create our vision. They all played a very important part in making our day so special and perfect. One of my boys from work drew a beautiful canvas of the venue and we got people to colour it in throughout the day. It’s an awesome piece of art to keep forever. And another friend built a beautiful retro looking coconut shy for us which the kids loved. My very talented sister painted all the signs for us, the watering hole being a particular favourite!

A Naked Cake….

We had an amazing, tiered naked victoria sponge cake. Draped in blueberries, strawberries and raspberries and all courtesy of my Auntie Di and Uncle Neil. It was epic.

Greens, Whites and Creams….

Flowers were beautifully coordinated by Dorset florist, Maria Brookes. We knew we wanted a classic, simple, natural colour palette. Greens, whites and creams and just various shapes and sizes. We also tasked Maria with creating a beautiful backdrop of flowers for our ceremony. She covered two trellis panels in all sorts of beautiful flowers. We also had fresh hops draped over poles/posts and tables along with ivy intertwined through picnic baskets and candles.

Picnic Wicker Baskets and Cream Teas….

Helford Hog Roasts were incredible. Kerra was amazing and pretty much sorted out our itinerary for the day too on our first meeting. Cannot recommend her and her team enough. It all worked so smoothly throughout the entire day. We had wicker baskets overflowing with home-made goodies! Stuffed breads, pates, potted salmon, roast chicken, Cornish cheeses, funky salad pots. Served on a rustic ‘log’ carving board with bamboo plates and cutlery The baskets served 8 people and we had a cream tea for the desert. In the evening we had a traditional hog roast with bread rolls, brambly apple sauce and sage & onion stuffing.

Classical Strings and An Incredible Band….

We had ‘classical strings‘ for the ceremony. Again amazing performance, they do a real mix of old and new. I’m a big Bruce Springsteen fan, so dad and I walked into mine and Mike’s favourite song… Born to Run! They played us out to the Beatles ‘all you need is love’. Along with elbow, ‘one day like this’ and des’ree ‘I’m kissing you’ for the signing of the register.

For the evening we had the band, Riptide. An INCREDIBLE band we booked through Alive Network. Mike an I literally listened to every band on that site and we can safely say, we picked the best. Everyone was up on the dance floor ALL night, which was exactly the vibe we wanted. Again they played their own rendition of ‘Born to Run’ for our first dance so Mike and I went for it!

Favourite Moment….

Everything! I honestly don’t think I could choose one thing, it was all INCREDIBLE. It was so perfect that I have to look at the pictures to believe this most perfect day did actually happen.

Any Advice?

Stick to your guns, do what you both want to do and enjoy and soak up every single moment because (very over said, but so true) it goes so quick. Save more than you think you need because this is one day where you should not have to compromise on anything and just bloody go for it! We were dressed in Native American head gear whilst eating our dinner. Our answer to why… why not!